Vlyrock
06-05-2007, 09:50 PM
We've been working on this for 2 months (with the help of BigJohn), so it's nice to see it come to fruition.
The Announcement: Aggiefans.com and Websider.com are embarking on an agreement of cooperation and information sharing between our respective communities.
The Background: The Aggie Spirit is what sets Texas A&M apart from other schools. Fueled by a strong sense of commitment and loyalty to Texas A&M and to fellow Aggies, both personally and professionally, it binds together Aggies worldwide. Traditionally, however, this hasn't extended to online communities. Aggiefans.com and Websider.com feel that this doesn't have to be the norm. There's no reason why online communities can't work together in a mutual relationship that will have benefits for each independent website.
What's it all mean? I've struggled for a while now trying to figure out what I can give back to members that donate to this site. Sure, a place to post is great, but I've always wanted to do more. I believe that this agreement will do that.
However, this doesn't leave out the regular members...they'll see some benfits from this announcement as well. Read on to see the details. If you're interested in becoming a donating member, visit this page:
Memberships Available Here (http://www.aggiefans.com/forums/payments.php)
First things first though -- Aggiefans.com and Websider.com are not merging. We are remaining independent sites. You are not getting memberships to Websider.com through this deal. If interested in joining, you'll have to register on Websider.com's website yourself. However, there's a lot that you guys will gain from this deal. AF.com and Websider.com also can gain a lot if we execute this deal well. Here's a brief list of the benefits that I can think of:
Aggiefans.com gets:
David Sandhop (Hop), an owner of Websider.com will post premium content in our premium sports forums as breaking news happens. So as not to steal content or get for free what Websider.com members have to pay for, all breaking news will have a tidbit or a synopsis on what's involved (a new recruit, a decommit, an injury) with a link back to Websider.com's premium article. After a standard number of days, the thread will be revisited and updated with the information so that you guys can stay informed -- but not at the pace or rate you would if you subscribed to Websider.com's service.
Hop has agreed to help by being a "recruiting expert" in limited capacity and will host occasional chats on our website for members of our site to participate in. This will be cross-promoted with Websider.com and some of their members may register here to participate.
Cross-promotion means more activity on our boards. Just as we hope some of their members come here to post regularly, I hope that some of you guys will register (it's free on most forums) on Websider.com and join that community.
Hop will participate in an occasional podcast (when we start those back up). Podcasts will be available to both AF.com and Websider.com -- again, increasing awareness of both sites.
Joint ventures in tailgates, road trips and events. More people and more sites = less cost per site and more fun overall. We're looking to have tailgates with both sites and possibly expand on AF.com's annual road trip. With their user base combined to ours, it may now be possible to put together larger road trips involving buses and hotels, etc.
What Websider.com gets:
They will become the "sponsors" of the premium sports forum. There will be a text link (totally unobtrusive) placed in the description linking back to Websider.com.
Increased awareness. They are competitors of Rivals.com and not everybody is aware of how good of a service they really have. This is an opportunity for Hop to show our user base what Websider.com can do. As such, we encourage you guys to support them if at all possible.
The list looks smaller for them, but they are receiving some of the same benefits we are (listed under AF.com). They will get to benefit from the joint events -- more people=more fun and less costs. They will also benefit from us pushing people to their site -- either through links or word of mouth.
This is an exciting time. There's never been an agreement like this between Aggie sites, so it'll be interesting to see how it turns out. I hope this is good news for you guys. Please let me know your thoughts or concerns.
-Vly
The Announcement: Aggiefans.com and Websider.com are embarking on an agreement of cooperation and information sharing between our respective communities.
The Background: The Aggie Spirit is what sets Texas A&M apart from other schools. Fueled by a strong sense of commitment and loyalty to Texas A&M and to fellow Aggies, both personally and professionally, it binds together Aggies worldwide. Traditionally, however, this hasn't extended to online communities. Aggiefans.com and Websider.com feel that this doesn't have to be the norm. There's no reason why online communities can't work together in a mutual relationship that will have benefits for each independent website.
What's it all mean? I've struggled for a while now trying to figure out what I can give back to members that donate to this site. Sure, a place to post is great, but I've always wanted to do more. I believe that this agreement will do that.
However, this doesn't leave out the regular members...they'll see some benfits from this announcement as well. Read on to see the details. If you're interested in becoming a donating member, visit this page:
Memberships Available Here (http://www.aggiefans.com/forums/payments.php)
First things first though -- Aggiefans.com and Websider.com are not merging. We are remaining independent sites. You are not getting memberships to Websider.com through this deal. If interested in joining, you'll have to register on Websider.com's website yourself. However, there's a lot that you guys will gain from this deal. AF.com and Websider.com also can gain a lot if we execute this deal well. Here's a brief list of the benefits that I can think of:
Aggiefans.com gets:
David Sandhop (Hop), an owner of Websider.com will post premium content in our premium sports forums as breaking news happens. So as not to steal content or get for free what Websider.com members have to pay for, all breaking news will have a tidbit or a synopsis on what's involved (a new recruit, a decommit, an injury) with a link back to Websider.com's premium article. After a standard number of days, the thread will be revisited and updated with the information so that you guys can stay informed -- but not at the pace or rate you would if you subscribed to Websider.com's service.
Hop has agreed to help by being a "recruiting expert" in limited capacity and will host occasional chats on our website for members of our site to participate in. This will be cross-promoted with Websider.com and some of their members may register here to participate.
Cross-promotion means more activity on our boards. Just as we hope some of their members come here to post regularly, I hope that some of you guys will register (it's free on most forums) on Websider.com and join that community.
Hop will participate in an occasional podcast (when we start those back up). Podcasts will be available to both AF.com and Websider.com -- again, increasing awareness of both sites.
Joint ventures in tailgates, road trips and events. More people and more sites = less cost per site and more fun overall. We're looking to have tailgates with both sites and possibly expand on AF.com's annual road trip. With their user base combined to ours, it may now be possible to put together larger road trips involving buses and hotels, etc.
What Websider.com gets:
They will become the "sponsors" of the premium sports forum. There will be a text link (totally unobtrusive) placed in the description linking back to Websider.com.
Increased awareness. They are competitors of Rivals.com and not everybody is aware of how good of a service they really have. This is an opportunity for Hop to show our user base what Websider.com can do. As such, we encourage you guys to support them if at all possible.
The list looks smaller for them, but they are receiving some of the same benefits we are (listed under AF.com). They will get to benefit from the joint events -- more people=more fun and less costs. They will also benefit from us pushing people to their site -- either through links or word of mouth.
This is an exciting time. There's never been an agreement like this between Aggie sites, so it'll be interesting to see how it turns out. I hope this is good news for you guys. Please let me know your thoughts or concerns.
-Vly